In these interviews, scientists talk to ScienceWatch.com and
offer behind-the-scenes insights into their research: reflections on
what led them to their chosen field, the motivation driving their work
in a given direction, and the challenges encountered along on the way.
These authors also offer their views on why their work has wielded
particular influence in the scientific community, as indicated by
Clarivate
citation data, and on how research in their respective fields has
progressed over time and will likely unfold in the future.
Featured interviews for July 2008 are listed below. To
view featured interviews from past months/years, visit the
Featured
Interviews Main Menu.
In these interviews, scientists talk to
ScienceWatch.com and offer
behind-the-scenes insights into their research:
reflections on what led them to their chosen field,
the motivation driving their work in a given
direction, and the challenges encountered along on
the way. These authors also offer their views on
why their work has wielded particular influence in
the scientific community, as indicated by
Thomson
Reuters citation data, and on how research in
their respective fields has progressed over time
and will likely unfold in the future.
Featured interviews for July 2008
are listed below. To view previously featured
interviews from past months, use the following
links:
Excerpt from the
interview: "AAS,
launched in 1984, is an
international journal on the
dynamics, physics, and chemistry of
the atmosphere and ocean. It covers
the latest achievements and
developments in the atmospheric
sciences, including marine
meteorology and
meteorology-associated geophysics,
as well as the theoretical and
practical aspects of these
disciplines. "
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "...the paper tells
an interesting story with many
interesting ingredients in the mix:
mammals, dinosaurs, and the
Cretaceous-Tertiary mass-extinction
event. Moreover, it apparently
dispels the long-held truth that it
was the death..."
View Article
Tiziana Borsello
peptide
inhibitor of c-Jun N-terminal
kinase - Fast
Moving Front Commentary
Excerpt from the
interview: "We believe that
this paper is of general interest
in the field of neuroscience since
it illustrates the death of neurons
during stroke and a possible way to
prevent death. This is a hot field.
Stroke is one of the leading causes
of death..."
View Article
According to Essential Science
Indicators, among the 147
top-performing countries in all
fields, Canada ranked #6 for
citations (4,279,170), #7 for
papers (388,471), and #15 (11.02)
for citations per paper.
View Article
A survey of research from the
People’s Republic of China
indicates that the nation has
dramatically increased its
production of scientific papers in
recent years, nearly doubling its
tally since 2003. In fact, China's
2007 output of papers surpassed all
other nations except the United
States, with particular
concentration in the fields of
materials science, mathematics,
physics, and chemistry.
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "We were stimulated
to undertake this research because
in the late 1990s it was common for
pundits to claim that growing
international trade and investment
were leading to higher inequality
in countries and to growing
poverty..."
View Article
Excerpt from
the interview: "Our paper
represents the first
demonstration of the
functionality of
CRISPR/cas as a new
microbial immune system. It is
essentially the validation of a
putative hypothesis. This
achievement is mostly due to
the..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "INGV was born in
1999 through a merger of former
ING, Istituto Nazionale di
Geofisica, and four other national
research institutes with expertise
in different disciplines in the
geosciences. The result has been
the main permanent..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "Regular PCR
amplifies the RNA or DNA in a
sample, and real-time PCR amplifies
it and quantifies it. You’re
actually measuring something as it
occurs in real time. Following the
PCR, you get a number, and that
number tells you how much
RNA..."
View Article
A team of materials scientists at
MIT has successfully used a virus
to grow nanowires to serve as
anodes in a lithium battery, just
one example of the team’s
harnessing of biological organisms
and processes in the synthesis of
new materials.
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "The underlying
theme that interests me is the use
of chemistry of molecules as probes
of the physical conditions in
interstellar space. To me
that’s more than a question
of using molecules as proxies to
get temperatures..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "My main focus of
research is in mathematical
statistics and applied probability,
particularly in relation to spatial
data sets and computational
problems as covered in the research
areas known as spatial
statistics..."
View Article
Excerpt from
the interview: "To me,
mesoporous silica materials are
an ideal playground for
materials synthesis with wide
possibilities of structure and
morphology control and many
chemical applications. My first
paper on mesoporous silica
was..."
View Article
From the University
of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center in Dallas, Texas, Zbyszek
Otwinowski discusses
mathematical crystallography,
the primary method used to
determine three-dimensional
structures of large biological
molecules, namely proteins and
nucleic acids and the principal
tool for studying single
crystals, x-ray
diffraction.
Listen:
MP3|
WMA
Russel
Reiter on Melatonin and its
Metabolites- Podcast Interview
Russel J. Reiter,
Professor of Endocrinology at
the University of Texas Health
Science Center in San Antonio,
discusses the uniqueness of the
antioxidant melatonin. View
Reiter's
Fast Breaking Paper commentary
(with figures) about this subject
from February 2008.
Listen:
MP3|
WMA
Excerpt from
the interview: "A major
conclusion of our paper is that
significant reproductive and
other health impairments in some
fish and wildlife species are
probable at currently realistic
environmental concentrations of
mercury..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "...with cancer of
the uterine cervix, HPV is
responsible for nearly 100% of the
cancers, and this is true for all
parts of the world. That’s
very surprising, very unusual.
It’s the only example of a
major human cancer that has a
single etiology..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "Our paper was one
of the first to demonstrate that
extensively used chemicals such as
prescription and non-prescription
drugs, personal-care products,
detergent metabolites,
plasticizers, flame retardants, and
fragrances..."
View Article
Excerpt from
the interview: "The goal of
our paper was to look beyond
simple demonstrations of
contemporary evolution and
illustrate its importance in the
current biodiversity crisis. In
particular, we noted that
contemporary evolution..."
View Article
Anthony Westerling
discusses
climate-ecosystem-wildfire
interactions and climate change
impact assessments. Westerling
has a corresponding
Fast Breaking Paper comment
from Feb. 2008 regarding this
research.
Listen:
MP3|
WMA
Three separate teams of biologists
succeeded in effectively
reprogramming adult cells to serve
as pluripotent stem cells, which
are then able to differentiate into
any cell type. This method of
creating stem cells without the
need for embryonic tissue offers
enormous therapeutic potential for
creating new tissue from a
patient’s own cells.
View Article
(Additional
interviews/commentaries will be
added during July 2008)